Friday, November 07, 2008

A polite librarian should always insert a the before proper names of Internet name brands. Demonstrating your familiarity with the Google, the Facebook, or the Twitter, is a good way to establish some internet-cred with the kids.

Get the heck out, as they say. I blogged about that a while in proving our Dr. Campus Prez is as clueless as they come. He knows that you "can use THE Google to get to THE YouTube." And that is a direct quote from the speech he gave faculty and staff during convocation this year. I am so reassured our prez is at the cutting edge.

I know someone who does this all the time with the phrase "the email" -- as in, "Time to check the email." I'm not sure if she's trying to be ironic (i.e. mimic "Time to make the donuts"), but she's a bit too consistent for it to be a joke. Either way, it's annoying.

This just made me realize that, without meaning to, I've been spreading the misuse of proper web terminology by using slang such as "The Interwebs" in front of mostly-adult n00bs who haven't yet received the memo about Internet basics.

On 10/8/2004 in St. Louis at a Presidential debate George W. Bush said "I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft." Subsequent use started as a way to make fun of that. Sorta describing the internet at "a series of tubes" as former Senator Ted Stevens [R-AK]